


Window Of Opportunity

by lieutenant_hatshepsut



Series: Bittersweet ending [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman: The Telltale Series (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Groundhog Day, M/M, Sort Of, vigilante john
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-30
Updated: 2018-03-30
Packaged: 2019-04-14 16:55:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14140401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lieutenant_hatshepsut/pseuds/lieutenant_hatshepsut
Summary: If there was a chance to fix it all, Bruce thinks.





	Window Of Opportunity

**Author's Note:**

> many thanks to Gianeya for cathching mistakes <3

Bruce never thought about how huge the Wayne mansion was, how many rooms there were in it. Now, instantly empty without Alfred, it fell silent like a dog thrown away by his master, and Bruce gloomily anticipates how uncomfortable and untoward the house will be, left alone with him.

He occupies the living room and places bottles in a row on the table by the fireplace.

The tube of painkillers is half empty, but the pain doesn’t go anywhere, it remains with him.

Bruce doesn’t believe in God and doesn’t recognize the concept of fate; all that remains for him is to be angry only at himself, unable to get rid of the obsessive thoughts, that he did some mistakes, that somewhere he turned the wrong way. Among the many probabilities there must have existed one where he did everything right – there he was” somewhere else, and didn’t get drunk alone in an empty mansion, reminding himself of a worm swarming in a fresh corpse.

If there was a chance to fix it all, Bruce thinks.

If there was a possibility that he would not be alone now.

Bruce shakes several white pills into his hand and washes them down with vodka.

***

Bruce wakes up from the hot throbbing pain in his side. He opens his eyes - the picture floats and twitches like a jammed film footage, unbearably light around the edges. He tries to lean on his elbow, rising - but his hand trembles under his own weight, and he feels sick.

"Careful, Master Bruce," asks Alfred, and Bruce looks at him like he saw a ghost.

Alfred sighs softly.

"One guy walks into a doctor's office," he says. “The guy says, Doc, I’ve got this thing with my hands – they won’t stop shaking, and it’s… it’s driving me mad.”

"And the doctor," Bruce interrupts huskily. "He says, have you been drinking a lot?"

"Oh, you remember this one," Alfred smiles sadly, coming closer. "When you were knee-high, you laughed so hard on it."

Bruce closes his eyes. He feels like a doll, diverging at the seams, cotton sticking out from everywhere.

"Relax," adds Alfred, sounding uncertain. "Miss Kyle get you here in a terrible condition."

"While I was out," Bruce tells him. "I've had a dream."

"I suppose not a pleasant one?" asks Alfred softly.

Bruce exhales slowly and forces himself to sit up – with a taste of a bile on his tongue or not, he has to get up after a minute and he will.

Bruce knows about himself that he is one of those who always expect the worst. Maybe now it will be in his favor, maybe today it will help him avoid wrong decisions and their damn bitter consequences.

"At least," says Bruce, opening his eyes, and the soft light of the Bat Cave mercifully hides from him how old and how tired Alfred looks. "I woke up from this dream."

 

Bruce goes to East End to find traces of John-the Joker-John, and after - to the Ace Chemicals abandoned factory. A persistent sense of deja vu haunts him every moment - in every phrase addressed to him, in every glance to him, in everything he says by himself.

In the middle of an old factory dying with the acrid smell of chemicals the Joker meets him - with a knife attached to Waller's eye and with the words full of misunderstanding and resentment.

Bruce knows that he must be a hero, but he says:

"I'm on your side, John. Always was, always will be.”

"Then help me to bring her to justice!" - demands John, and Bruce, with agony betraying himself, answers:

“I will.”

"For God's sake!.." exhales Waller maliciously.

John smiles at him, like he used to in a very different decorations, and for twenty minutes everything is fine, until things get out of hand, and John wants to kill Waller, and then Tiffany, and then - Bruce.

"Did you ever consider me a friend?" asks John when it's all over.

Bruce feels cold because of blood loss, it’s hard for him to move his tongue, but he says:

\- Always.

And then he closes his eyes.

***

Bruce wakes up from the hot throbbing pain in his side. He opens his eyes - the picture floats and twitches like a jammed film footage, unbearably light around the edges. He tries to lean on his elbow, rising - but his hand trembles under his own weight, and he feels sick.

"No," he whispers; Alfred says something, he sounds worried, but Bruce can’t recognize the words. “No, no, no.”

Bruce doesn’t go to East End; he hurries to get to the Ace Chemicals abandoned factory. The Joker meets him with a knife attached to Waller's eye and with the words full of misunderstanding and resentment.

Bruce says:

"I'm on your side, John. Always was, always will be.”

"Then help me to bring her to justice!" - demands John, and Bruce answers:

“I will.”

"For God's sake!.." exhales Waller maliciously.

He really tries - but he can’t stand by John trying to kill Waller, and then Tiffany, and then - Bruce.

"Always," says Bruce at the end and closes his eyes.

***

Bruce wakes up from the hot throbbing pain in his side. Alfred says something, but Bruce doesn’t listen and doesn’t answer.

Finally he finds the strength to sit up.

The Joker meets him in the middle of an old factory.

"All right," Bruce replies to everything he says.

John looks at him in disbelief.

"But what about your rule?" he asks. "You can not break it! You said, heroes don’t kill!”

He tosses Waller aside and directs his knife towards Bruce.

"It seems this makes you a villain," he says.

And Bruce thinks: let it be so.

***

Next time he doesn’t allow The Joker to kill him so easily.

He doesn’t explain anything to Alfred, just gets in the Batmobile and drives away from Gotham, until, exactly at midnight, the road ahead seeming to be endless just disappears.

He tries to be a hero again, and the Joker laughs, laughs, laughs.

He fails the opportunity to catch John before he falls into emerald green acid.

He tries every option that comes to mind, but in the end only death, loneliness and the word "always" remain with him.

***

Bruce wakes up from the sound of unfamiliar voice.

His body feels delightfully distant; darkness envelops him like a cape.

"Suicide attempt, no doubt," the voice says. "A few hours between life and death. He was lucky to avoid coma. Coercion hospitalization…”

"You can’t send Bruce Wayne to Arkham Asylym!" another voice protests; someone's gentle hand brushes Bruce's hair away from his forehead.

"I heard that he had already spent there some time," the third voice says.

His words open the window of opportunity in front of Bruce. 

If he could feel his lips, he would have smiled.

Bruce thinks with a relief: let it be so.


End file.
